Widow of Gettysburg: Book Two, Heroines Behind the Lines
Troops close in on Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863. Liberty Holloway, a young Union widow, has a farm near Cemetery Ridge, scene of the worst fighting. Marauders raid her barn, steal her provisions, and, although Silas Ford, a Confederate scout saves Liberty from harm, her home is commandeered for use as a hospital – for enemy soldiers.
Forced to leave or be of use, Liberty tends the Confederate wounded. Fighting to get medical attention for a man in a blue uniform, she discovers Silas’ true loyalties, but both have scars that predate the war. Their burgeoning attraction can’t survive unless they come to terms with the past. Fraught relationships, dark secrets and strange twists of fate detract from the larger story, but, that aside, this is a potent lesson in history. We have all witnessed the effects of war on noncombatants – wives, doctors, families, reporters, friends – in our own age. For good or ill, war is a catalyst for change.
Widow of Gettysburg is recommended for its precise and unsparing depiction of the widespread destruction caused by war.
